Unlike Karintha in Cane and Zora in The Quest of the Silver Fleece, Helga’s story ends in what appears to be defeat. After Helga searches for her place and identity from south to north, to across the seas in Copenhagen, she still finds no space that pleases her. While many argue that at the end of the novel, Helga has exhausted all of her possibilities, there is hope at the end of the novel which is seen in Helga’s complete rejection of time and the “fifth child.” While Karintha rids herself of her child in order to embrace modernity, perhaps the fifth child that Nella Larsen ends the novel with is not actually a child at all. Perhaps the fifth child represents a birthing of new possibilities for Helga4. While Helga has exhausted some possibilities, she is far from exhausting them all which is seen mostly through the language of the last paragraph and the images of futurity that emerge in the last chapter. The likelihood of Helga giving birth to a physical child is not likely. Timing is important in this novel. However, time is not stable or reliable in Quicksand. At the beginning of the novel, Helga ignores time and does not respond to it even though time rules Naxos. In chapter one, Larsen writes that “[t]he minutes gathered into hours, but she still sat motionless, a disdainful …show more content…
The syntax implies that things are beginning twice. The repetition of “hardly” as creates the feeling of beginning again. It is as if Larsen is causing the reader to pay close attention to this last paragraph in relation to the entire text. It is also interesting that this final paragraph is not indented like the other paragraphs in the novel. The reader is truly experiencing the time lapse that happens between the time being re-envisioned in a natural state. The images that emerge in the final paragraph are images of the domestic space which include a bed and children. However, the fifth child stands
...s because Helga has not experienced inner happiness. Helga uses her ethnicity as a crutch of why her life has not panned out as it should and she indulges in her own self-pity that only fires her negative defiance. This personal factor has an effect on her outlook and attitude on life and causes her to make selfish and irrational decisions further more leaving her in sorrow and self-pity. When Helga taught at Naxo, she built inside of her a rage of anger and instead of using her disapproval as momentum in changing the world; she used it to fire her thoughts of unfairness and resentment, which she brings her to spiritual and physical defeat in the end.
Naxos is the first place Helga leaves to flee from commitments. Her engagement to James Vayle makes Helga feel both “shame” and “power,” so she expects to feel “relief” upon canceling the plans (1533). Only once she has left Naxos does Helga realize that “she couldn't have married him...Certainly she had never loved him,” (1543) confirming her earlier speculation. In contrast to her desire to escape the institution of marriage, Helga waivers in deciding to leave Naxos: after Dr. Anderson responds to her announcement, Helga felt “an insistent need to be a part of [his plans] spr[i]ng in her...[w]ith compunction tweaking at her heart for even having entertained the notion of deserting him” (1540). Her reaction could be motivated by aspirations of educating and improving the students of Naxos, but is more likely evoked by the “mystifying yearning” (1540) she experiences while listening to Dr. Anderson. Therefore Helga does not abscond her job, as she had resolved to stay (1541), but the exploration of her feelings; later, Helga even denotes her impulse to leave “illogical” (1541). In any case, Helga can not bear the future she sees for herself at Naxos, as she thinks, “To remain seemed too hard” (1534).
Still another significant feature exhibited in the sixth last frame displays a family type portrait of a happy family where the couple’s children are grow...
He was the leader of the Argonauts, wielder of Golden Fleece, and trained by a centaur. Who is this fantastic man? His name is Jason! His life was full of adventure and uncertainty. Jason had a very difficult life considering his childhood, he stole the Golden Fleece, and all of his children were murdered.
The spacious, sunlit room has yellow wallpaper with a hideous, chaotic pattern that is stripped in multiple places. The bed is bolted to the ground and the windows are closed. Jane despises the space and its wallpaper, but John refuses to change rooms, arguing that the nursery is best-suited for her recovery. Because the two characters, Emily and Jane, are forced to become isolated, they turn for the worst. Isolation made the two become psychotic.
Hester begins her life in a “happy infancy” (48.31) as a beautiful, beloved, though perhaps somewhat vapid child. Lost in memory during her stay on the scaffold, she recalls feeling drawn to stare at her own face in the mirror, “glowing with girlish beauty” (49.5), and admiring her reflection.
It is run down and neglected, like his wife – run down from her illness and emotionally neglected, as her desires are overruled by his practicality. The mansion has housed children in the past. The nursery serves as the couple’s bedroom, where “the windows are barred” (p 677), to prevent the children from injuring themselves from a fall. Like the children, she is protected and imprisoned. This “atrocious nursery” (p 677) is covered with “a smouldering unclean yellow” (p 677) wallpaper, which becomes her obsession.
This male dominance led the narrator from “The Yellow Wallpaper” into loneliness and eventually to a place of no return. The alienation is shown in terms of the setting, "The most beautiful place! It is quite alone, standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village. " The house that the couple rented for three months represents the woman’s physical imprisonment and symbolizes her isolation. Moreover, the nursery that John recommends his wife to live in includes many confining elements.
Another man in the crowd informs the stranger as to the circumstances leading to the woman’s punishment. He tells him that Hester was sent to Europe ahead of her husband, who was to follow a short time later. She has now been in Boston for two years, and has never received word from her husband. The people have been lenient in punishing her for the crime of having a child out of wedlock because of the circumstances with her absent husband. Her punishment is to stand on the scaffold for three hours and to wear the A on her chest for the rest of her life.
The Canterbury Tales is more than an amusing assortment of stories; it is an illustration of the society in which Geoffrey Chaucer lived. It portrays the culture and class system of the medieval ages in microcosm. Every strata of human life at the time were represented by the many characters whose tales are told. Each character’s basic human nature also plays a role in their stories, and each one has within them the strengths and weaknesses that make up all of humanity. Each character exemplifies their life and reputation through the stories they tell. The Pardoner uses his tale as a ploy to garner money. His tale embodies each deadly sin, and every reader can relate to his story and feel the guilt of his characters. The Wife of Bath’s tale expresses her own ideals in the way her character is given a second chance after committing a crime. The Franklin’s tale, because of its straightforwardness and honesty is a direct representation of the Franklin’s simple and joyful life. Each character tells a tale that is a suitable match to their personality. These characters’ tales represent prevalent themes of the middle ages, including greed, corruption of religious clergymen, violence, revenge, and social status. In Chaucer’s society, the traditional feudal system was losing its importance and the middle class began to emerge. The middle class characters within the Canterbury Tales, with their personal lives and interactions with members of differing social classes, gave an understanding of the growth of society, especially the rising middle class, during medieval times.
Evald has repeatedly espoused to her that he does not want children. Thus when she becomes pregnant at the age of thirty-nine, Marianne is in an incredibly difficult position: leave her husband and raise the child on her own, or abort the child and stay with her husband. Neither of these options are ideal; Marianne repeatedly elucidates that she wants to keep the child, and so the decision is not one she can make lightly. This brings to mind other sub-optimal conditions faced by prospective mothers throughout the semester; particularly, the situation of Lucy in Disgrace, pregnant with her rapist’s child, conjures similar quandaries. Neither of these women is a teenager unable to support herself and her possible offspring, but still, the question of impending motherhood is a challenging one. Wild Strawberries tends to portray motherhood in a negative light; motherhood does not seem a harbinger of joy and happiness, but rather a necessary evil that should not necessarily be undertaken. Sarah, Isak’s betrothed who eventually marries his brother, cradles what is supposed to be a newborn child, but is obviously only a facsimile, a doll. Isak’s mother, of advanced age, is frigid and cold towards him, unwilling to show the least bit of affection for her last remaining
Chaucer’s book “The Canterbury Tales” presents a frame story written at the end of the 14th century that is set through a group of pilgrims participation in a story-telling contest that they make up to entertain each other while they travel to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. Because of this, some of the tales become particularly attractive for they are written within a frame of parody which, as a style that mocks genre, is usually achieved by the deliberate exaggeration of some aspects of it for comic effect. In fact, as a branch of satire mimicry, its purpose may be corrective as well as derisive. (Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms) Chaucer, therefore, uses parody to highlight – satirize - some aspects of the medieval society that should be re-evaluated. He uses the tales and the behaviours of its characters to paint an ironic and critical portrait of the English society at that time, therefore the tales turn satirical, elevated, ironic, earthy, bawdy, and comical. When analysing the Knight’s and the Miller’s Tale, one can realise how Chaucer mocks the courtly love convention, and other social codes of behaviours typical of the medieval time.
An interesting aspect of the famous literary work, "The Canterbury Tales," is the contrast of realistic and exaggerated qualities that Chaucer entitles to each of his characters. When viewed more closely, one can determine whether each of the characters is convincing or questionable based on their personalities. This essay will analyze the characteristics and personalities of the Knight, Squire, Monk, Plowman, Miller, and Parson of Chaucer's tale.
A pregnancy will force her to gain weight and lose her lovely womanly figure. Hedda has grown accustomed to her many admirers; therefore, Hedda is perturbed and embarrassed when George says to Aunt Julie, "But have you noticed how plump and buxom she's grown?... ... middle of paper ... ...
In today 's society, it is normal for young children to believe in fairytales. These fairytales are normally seen throughout books and movies but also through parents reading them as bedtime stories. These tales in our society have unrecognized hidden guidelines for ethics and behaviors that we provide for children. One such children 's story is Disney’s Cinderella, this film seems to be a simple tale of a young woman whose wishes work out as to be expected. This tale reflects the expectations of women 's actions and beliefs of a proper women.